A Digital Versatile Disk (“DVD”) is an optical storage medium that can be used to store both audio content and video content. Advances in DVD technology have resulted in a number of useful features for consumers and video production professionals. Some of the more useful features are those that allow playback of stored content to be customized based on a user's preferences. In particular, an existing DVD player typically allows a user to specify a number of listening and viewing options. For example, prior to viewing a movie, the user can select one of a number of different sound tracks that accompany the movie. As another example, the user can choose to view the movie in a letterbox format or a pan and scan format.
Although existing DVD technology provides for some customization of playback, the level of customization that is provided can be deficient in certain respects. For example, while an existing DVD player can allow a user to specify listening and viewing options for a current playback session, the specified listening and viewing options are typically not retrievable after the current playback session. Thus, in order to replicate a customized viewing experience, the user may need to re-specify the same listening and viewing options at each subsequent playback session. In some instances, the user may wish to customize playback by specifying different listening and viewing options as scenes change or as characters move. As can be appreciated, requiring the user to re-specify these listening and viewing options at each subsequent playback session is not only tedious and time-consuming but also interrupts the viewing experience.
As another example, while an existing DVD player can allow a user to specify listening and viewing options while using that DVD player, the specified listening and viewing options typically cannot be exported to another existing DVD player. Thus, in order to replicate a customized viewing experience while using another existing DVD player, the same listening and viewing options may need to be specified, thus impeding sharing of the customized viewing experience among different users.
It is against this background that a need arose to develop the apparatus and method described herein.